Sunday, September 21, 2008

I don't really want to trigger a world wide depression (that's not hyperbole, that's a distinct possibility), but I'm not voting for a blank check for $700 billion for those mother fuckers.

17 comments:

  1. they are attempting the controlled demolition of the global financial system. the majority of the public especially the "intellectuals" are fooled, years upon years of brain damage, but the congress knows exactly what's going on. problem is only those who are a) very personally clean as whistles (waxman, feingold, conyers, waters), since there's been eight years of spying on them and b) have nothing really to gain, can oppose; if there are enough - we will now find out if there are - of these (doesn't have to be a majority, they just have to be active) and if Obama uses his spotlight in a ross perotish fashion to explain, they can be stopped. easily actually. but there has to be a break in the obedience and the timidity, forced on the media and the congress by a knowledgeable and angry public including part of the upper middle class and the ruling class, those once called "progressives", which is now anything slightly to the left of fascist, which will exclude many upper level dems (the clintons, for example) but will include too rich to care capitalists like soros and some media people.

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  2. Anonymous10:06 AM

    Well, I guess it's as good a way as any to find out if Obama is any good...

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  3. the currency websites that usually update over the weekend (not precisely reliably, but every couple seconds, so you know sunday whether there's been a big move) have all frozen this weekend. ots a bit eerie.

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  4. Anonymous12:36 PM

    This statement from Obama was circulated Thursday, so it predates the announcement of the specifics. But it exemplifies the weenie-wonk approach of his campaign and promises little for his follow-up. I was particularly touched by the reference to "our financial crisis." Yes, little guy that I am, I am ready to shoulder my share of my crisis in hope of better regulations in the future, specially since BO has made a two-minute ad. Waht more could a little guy ask for?:

    The economy hit a new low this week, and in every part of the country, people like you are feeling it.

    The recent financial disasters -- from the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the historic drop in the stock market -- are not just a string of bad luck. They are the result of years of bad decisions made in favor of big corporate special interests instead of America's working families.

    More than 600,000 Americans have lost their jobs since January. Home foreclosures are skyrocketing, and home values are plunging. Gas prices are at an all-time high, and we're still spending more than $10 billion every month on a war in Iraq that should never have been waged.

    John McCain's campaign is doing everything it can to focus attention on false personal attacks and distractions -- but there's too much at stake for t! hat kind of politics.

    I need your help to get the conversation back on track.

    I recorded a two-minute TV ad about our economy and my plan to solve this crisis. Please watch the ad and share it with everyone you know:

    Watch the video and share it with your friends

    For eight years, Bush-McCain economic policies have favored reckless deregulation and huge tax loopholes for big corporations. Now, as these corporations crumble, American taxpayers are facing costly bailouts.

    More of the same failed ideas are not going to solve our economic problems.

    I'm calling for a $1,000 tax break for middle-class families -- not just because they need help dealing with the rising costs of gas, food, and health care, but also because our economy needs to be reinvigorated from the bottom up, not the top down.

    I'm proposing a second stimulus package to save over one million jobs and provide immediate relief to struggling families.

    And I'll end the "anything goes" culture on Wall Street with real regulation. We can see clearly that our economy is stronger when we protect investments and pensions, and avoid devastating bankruptcies and bailouts.

    This is no ordinary time, and it shouldn't be an ordinary election. Help keep the discussion focused on the issues.

    Please watch the video and share it with your friends today:

    http://my.barackobama.com/economyvideo

    Thanks for helping to bring the change this country needs,

    Barack

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  5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEvdL-GPjFk

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  6. cautious but he does, if obliquely, make the main points; with real support from the press and the public he could lead the effort to thwart this. "not a time for panic"

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  7. that's his best line really - let's just settle down a sec and not run frenzied into more stupidity.

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  8. Anonymous2:44 PM

    "We can see clearly that our economy is stronger when we protect investments and pensions, and avoid devastating bankruptcies and bailouts." But this bit sounds to me like no more HUGE bailouts, after this one. The 'expert' discussion presumes two alternatives, massive bail out or no bail out. Mr. O. doesn't seems to ven hint at, say, other uses for $$ on that scale. I would expect huge bail out without the dictatorial agency.

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  9. yes he's wall street's favourite guy. so there are actually a variety of ruling class preferences here. that's the only debate - between the different points of view of finance actually. all want the bailout, but much of wall street doesn't want the dictatorship and what one has to suppose comes next.

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  10. Anonymous3:38 PM

    cautious but he does, if obliquely, make the main points; with real support from the press and the public he could lead the effort to thwart this. "not a time for panic"

    I had to strain my ears to hear that message, to be honest. He's going to accept this, but hold out for a 100 mil relief package and push for stronger oversight.

    My own theory is that the first draft of the bill is outrageously lacking in oversight provisions by design. Any concessions made to some sort of oversight committee, no matter how toothless, will be regarded as a great victory for the democratic process, a little piece of paper for Pelosi and Obama to wave around on some runway in the blue states.

    From the lacklustre, perfunctory delivery of the statement, I'm guessing he hates going along with this, but he knows he has no choice. I suppose that's to his credit, but ultimately it means nothing. Being charitable, I'd say that what's going through his mind is: "So this is why they've given me a fighting chance at the presidency...bastards!

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  11. I dunno; think about what they are really asking for. Assume the tailor made, laboriously designed tangible real estate bubble is the spectacular part.

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  12. Anonymous4:16 AM

    I'm talking about a really crappy concession re: oversight, like the fraudulent FISA court concession Obama claimed as some sort of victory whe he rolled over on that bill back in July.

    I'd be astounded if Obama seriously fights this: it would be suicide. I mean, isn't the temporary short-selling ban a gun to the head of anyone who opposes this? So that if Congress refuses this, the short sellers can be unleashed again, triggering a crash that the media can blame on 'congressional inaction'? Isn't that one of the purposes of the short-selling ban, or is that 'tinfoil'?

    Bloomberg on TV yesterday seemed pretty confident about the 'acquiescence' of congress (his word).

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  13. suicide or glory; it all depends on the press and the public, really the press that represents the tranch of the ruling class just below the clique running the scam - the bulk of the the financial industry. its a lot of people.

    he left these blanks, as if in anticipation of "public opinion" - the press, the influential classes, filling them in. but they are the right blanks - upside, oversight.

    No blank check. If we grant the Treasury broad authority to address the immediate crisis, we must insist on independent accountability and oversight. Given the breach of trust we have seen and the magnitude of the taxpayer money involved, there can be no blank check.

    Rescue requires mutual responsibility. As taxpayers are asked to take extraordinary steps to protect our financial system, it is only appropriate to expect those institutions that benefit to help protect American homeowners and the American economy. We cannot underwrite continued irresponsibility, where CEOs cash in and our regulators look the other way. We cannot abet and reward the unconscionable practices that triggered this crisis. We have to end them.

    Taxpayers should be protected. This should not be a handout to Wall Street. It should be structured in a way that maximizes the ability of taxpayers to recoup their investment. Going forward, we need to make sure that the institutions that benefit from financial insurance also bear the cost of that insurance.

    Help homeowners stay in their homes. This crisis started with homeowners and they bear the brunt of the nearly unprecedented collapse in housing prices. We cannot have a plan for Wall Street banks that does not help homeowners stay in their homes and help distressed communities.

    A global response. As I said on Friday, this is a global financial crisis and it requires a global solution. The United States must lead, but we must also insist that other nations, who have a huge stake in the outcome, join us in helping to secure the financial markets.

    Main Street, not just Wall Street. The American people need to know that we feel as great a sense of urgency about the emergency on Main Street as we do the emergency on Wall Street. That is why I call on Senator McCain, President Bush, Republicans and Democrats to join me in supporting an emergency economic plan for working families – a plan that would help folks cope with rising gas and food prices, save one million jobs through rebuilding our schools and roads, help states and cities avoid painful budget cuts and tax increases, help homeowners stay in their homes, and provide retooling assistance to help ensure that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built in America.


    the fact that GS and MS want to be banks suggests the response fromcongress was no; they'll get their s and l style bailout, much bigger of course, but not crash the currency confront China redraw the map of the world they had up their sleeve. maybe.

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  14. "Isn't that one of the purposes of the short-selling ban, or is that 'tinfoil'? "

    the short selling ban is dramaturgy I think - an old script; but for fifteen or twenty years now the treasury has been intervening so that the market never corrects. a little, yes, but a permanent bull market since 87; its not just the mortgages (its not all worthless - there are some dried up tranches out there of course, but most people do in fact pay their mortgages even when real estate prices fall), it's all assets; creating the "superbubble" that soros mentions without acknowledging the cause. shorting speculatively is not a worry i think, its easy to get burned, in a climate of intervention by the minute. unless there is some huge easily outed criminal scheme of big banks...

    "A global response"

    this means the bank of china. this means "don't think we don't know what you're plotting." if the speech is for the bush regime, it is basically covering everything to show the scam underway is understood.

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  15. "Bloomberg on TV yesterday seemed pretty confident about the 'acquiescence' of congress (his word)."

    yeah, but this is like psyop reporting, rumours to make something a fait accompli; the problem with this as opposed to all the previous versions of this con is the financial industry actually understands it; there is this pool of people who are just not that naive and don't believe henry paulson of goldman sachs is a goofball bungling incompetent without access to information. the premise of the usual con is missing here. doesn't mean in the end they won't get what they want- they have a lot of tricks left in the bag - but it's possible they won't.

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  16. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13689.html

    it will be difficult to ignore all this understanding:


    "The administration's demand for a free pass, even if Congress unwisely goes along, is likely to backfire with our foreign creditors."


    ...

    “I hate to say this, but looking at the plan as leaked, I have to say no deal,” he (krugman) wrote on his blog at 4:46 p.m. Saturday. “Not unless Treasury explains, very clearly, why this is supposed to work, other than through having taxpayers pay premium prices for lousy assets.”

    ...

    Gregory Mankiw, a professor at Harvard University and a former chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers who was the economic guru for Mitt Romney's campaign, favorably linked to Smith's post under the headline "A Blank Check" and approvingly quoted a correspondent who wrote, "Has more money ever been given with fewer restrictions on how it is used? Ever?"

    this isn't the left; it's the whole establishment outside the clique

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  17. Zingales, though, writes in "Why Paulson Is Wrong" that "For somebody like me who believes strongly in the free market system, the most serious risk of the current situation is that the interest of a few financiers will undermine the fundamental workings of the capitalist system. The time has come to save capitalism from the capitalists."

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